Hey, Meghan Markle, Howie Mandel also felt like a “bimbo” on Deal Or No Deal

One wouldn’t think it controversial to say that being a game show model presenter is an objectified position, but then, anything’s a controversy if it comes out of Meghan Markle’s mouth. People were offended by her reasonable reflection on Deal Or No Deal, but former host Howie Mandel wasn’t. In fact, he feels the exact same way.

“I get it because—I’ve never said this before—but they had this pyramid of 26 beautiful, intelligent women standing there just staring at me like I was a piece of meat. I was in the center, just dressed up in a suit and I felt like I am more than this. And they would just look at me and I had to do nothing,” the comedian tells Us Weekly.

While the women’s only job was to open up the cases, don’t forget that Mandel’s only job was to tell them “to open up the cases.” “I get it. I felt like nothing,” he says. “And that’s why I’ve moved on and become a judge on America’s Got Talent. I just needed more than to be a Deal or No Deal host.”

Mandel doesn’t feel that the Duchess of Sussex was “maligning” the show: “I’ve never really heard anybody complain and I don’t think Meghan is complaining. I think Meghan just said she wanted to do more. It wasn’t fulfilling for her.” He does, however, clarify that the series “was a great workplace environment” and that, by the way, many of the girls “were mic’d and they had their input.”

Markle is just one of Deal Or No Deal’s briefcase girl success stories, alongside Chrissy Tiegen and Claudia Jordan, as Mandel points out, and many of them were “a lot more intelligent and accomplished” than he was. “[I] don’t know why there is a big hoopla,” Mandel says of Markle’s remarks, “except I have to say that me standing there with 26 women staring at me made me feel like a bimbo.” The entertainment industry is a rough business, huh?